You want to start learning Dutch and you just discovered there is a wide range of courses available … in English. But what if English is not your strongest point? What if you need to translate everything you read from English into your own language and vice versa in order to learn Dutch? It might quickly become a confusing experience!
For that reason, we offer an easily accessible Dutch grammar in a growing number of language editions, most of them as freely downloadable e-books in pdf-format. These publications are all translations of:
- Yolande Spaans, A Practical Dutch Grammar, Primavera Press, Leiden.
This elementary grammar is based on years of teaching experience. Step by step students are taken through topics they otherwise find difficult. And the approach is, as the title says, practical, with many examples from everyday situations and conversations.
Unlike the majority of the translations, the original English version is, now in a revised edition, only available as a printed book.
Which topics does this grammar book cover?
The grammar has around 85 pages including appendices.
- Basic topics like spelling, word order, verbs, articles, nouns and adjectives, pronouns, negation and the forming of complex sentences are presented in a clear way and illustrated with many examples.
- The appendices contain lists of frequently used irregular verbs, numerals, prepositions and adverbs, practical information about dates and time, and an overview of pronouns used for reference.
What is the Dutch Grammar project?
While teaching Dutch to foreigners, author Yolande Spaans frequently observed difficulties students had with any grammar book that was not explaining matters in their first language. She also discovered that a contemporary Dutch grammar book was unavailable in many languages. To remedy this situation she set up the Dutch Grammar project, with the goals
- to have the original English edition of A Practical Dutch Grammar translated
in as many languages as possible; - to preferably share these translations online for easy access.
Thanks to a team of enthousiastic university teachers, PhD candidates and others studying and/or working all over the world, substantial progress has been made in achieving these goals. There remains, however, a lot to be done. And we need your support…
Benefactors
If you sympathise with our cause, please consider ways of extending your help, ranging from
- making a donation towards the upkeep of this website, so we can continue to distribute our e-book editions free of charge to those wanting to learn the Dutch language.
all the way to
- funding of, or assisting with, a translation into a language in which A Practical Dutch Grammar is not yet available.